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More Than You Deserve (musical)
Description More Than You Deserve, originally titled Souvenirs, was a 1973 musical by Michael Weller (later famous for the screenplays of Hair and Ragtime) and Jim Steinman. It starred Fred Gwynne (perhaps most famous for his television role as Herman Munster) and featured Meat Loaf. Pre-production Michael Weller was an American teenager in England who'd winged across the Atlantic with visions of becoming a composer and jazz pianist. As Weller put it, "All my childhood and formative daydreams were about composing like Bartok and playing piano like Bill Evans."http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a206/rockfenris2005/batoutofexcess/letter1.jpg As things turned out, he wound up in London trying to make a start in theater, with a graduate degree in drama from the University of Manchester under his belt, and an idea in his head. During one of his visits to America, his father took him to see the musical Hair on Broadway. He didn't get the show. Weller says, "I asked my dad if this was supposed to be a portrait of what hippies were like. He said, 'It's a musical, Mike. Hair is to the hippies what South Pacific was to the Marines.'"http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a206/rockfenris2005/batoutofexcess/letter1.jpg This offhand comment was the germ of the idea Michael now had, an idea for a "satire based on South Pacific ... a totally straight-faced 'tribute' type show in the style of Rodgers & Hammerstein, but the content of the musical was Vietnam instead of the South Pacific (gook ears, massacres, all handled with sunny, winking bonhomie), with a twisted love story at the center," designed to "startle an audience into thinking about the war's horrors (or at least how far we had come as a nation since the innocent days of WWII)."http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a206/rockfenris2005/batoutofexcess/letter1.jpg At some point in the early Seventies, with this idea still in his head, director Kim Friedman paid him a visit in London, asking if he had any ideas for a musical, as Joe Papp had promised her a production at the Public Theater in New York. Not knowing who Friedman or the Public Theater were (as he put it, "Because I'd trained in music before I left America, I had absolutely no knowledge of or interest in New York theater ... I didn't know the players, the scene, the gossip...nothing ... my small theater lore was all centered on London, where I was living, working and establishing a career"http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a206/rockfenris2005/batoutofexcess/letter1.jpg), he still told her his idea in the vague hope of a potential production. A few months later, Friedman informed Weller that Papp had approved a production based on nothing more than his belief in her - they had a show! Now all they needed was a composer. Weller was looking for "someone who could do a wicked parody of Rodgers & Hammerstein" http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a206/rockfenris2005/batoutofexcess/letter1.jpg, and they saw several composers for the position, among them Michael Kamen of the New York Rock and Roll Ensemble. However, none proved satisfactory, and Kamen turned them down. Suddenly, Friedman came to Weller one day with a tape of a few songs by a potential composer, saying she'd found the man for the job. Says Weller, "She warned me that this music was different than what I had described, but she knew it was perfect for what was going on in theater at the moment."http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a206/rockfenris2005/batoutofexcess/letter1.jpg The composer? Jim Steinman. Weller's reaction? "I didn't know what to make of the music. It was operatic, expressive, dark, and interesting, but totally different than what I heard for the show."http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a206/rockfenris2005/batoutofexcess/letter1.jpg Meat Loaf In fact, Steinman and Loaf met while working on the show. Loaf originally opted for a minor part, but Steinman wanted him to sing. According to Weller, "Jim insisted we find a way to use him in the show, since there was no part for him in what I had written. Jim had a song he wanted him to sing (I believe he had composed it before he had anything to do with my musical), so I wrote a scene into the play that sort of justified the moment - and by the time we opened downtown, the title of the show was changed to the title of Jim's song."http://www.freewebs.com/lordsteinman/chats.htm Wikipedia offers this synopsis: "The story is set in a U.S. army base in Vietnam during the war. Major Michael Dillon (Gwynne), who is impotent, falls in love with a reporter sent to cover the camp, who turns out to be a nymphomaniac when she is gang-raped by the other soldiers in the camp. However, she realizes at the end that she will be even happier giving up her new-found lust for sex to settle down with the impotent commander." Songs #Overture #Give Me the Simple Life #Could She Be the One #Where Did It Go? #Come With Me #Mama, You'd Better Watch Out for Your Daughters #More Than You Deserve #O, What a War! #Song of The City Of Hope #To Feel So Needed #Go, Go, Go, Guerrillas #What Became of the People We Were #If Only #Midnight Lullabye #Song of the Golden Egg Cast Maj. Michael Dillon - Fred Gwynne Perrine/Rabbit - Meat Loaf Nathan/Herbie/Pilot - Stephen Collins Luke/Lance Moriarty - Seth Allen Fiona Markhan - Kimberly Farr Nurse/Nin Hua - Leata Galloway Nurse/Uncle Remus - Mary Beth Hurt Dr. Smith/Sgt. Price - Graham Jarvis Melvin - Terry Kiser Owlsey/Joe - Tom Leo Mike/Brown/Gerald Moore - Larry Marshall Wiley/Trout - Kim Milford Gen. Chet Eastacre - Ronald Silver Costucci/Lt. Maddox - Edward Zang Spooky 1 - Justin Ross Spooky 2/Radio Man - Eivie McGehee Vietnamese - Eivie McGehee, Justin Ross, Dale Soules Band Piano - Steve Margoshes Guitar - David Bradnum, Billy Schwartz Drums - Mike Redding Bass Guitar - David Dutemple Saxophone - Bill Blount Crew Book - Michael Weller Music and Lyrics - Jim Steinman Producer - Joseph Papp Associate Producer - Bernard Gersten Director - Kim Friedman Music Director - Steve Margoshes Choreography - Scott Salmon Set Designer - Miguel Romero Costume Designer - Lowell Detweiler Lighting Designer - Martin Aronstein Sound Design - Abe Jacob Publicity - Norman L. Berman, Merle Debuskey, Bob Ullman Production Stage Manager - Dyanne Hochman Conductor - Steve Margoshes Musical Arrangements - Steve Margoshes External Links MP3 audio of songs Show information Category:Projects